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The Armstrong and Miller Show

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The Armstrong and Miller Show is an English sketch comedy series starring the eponymous double act of Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller. The duo originally broke into British television with a series entitled simply Armstrong and Miller, which ran from 1997 to 2001 on Paramount Comedy and Channel 4, whereas the newer series began six years later in 2007 and aired on BBC1. The third series of The Armstrong and Miller Show ended in December 2010. A fourth was planned but neither Armstrong nor Miller could find the time it would take to make it.

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Comparisons to That Mitchell and Webb Look are inevitable, as both shows starred a double act, ran during similar time periods, and were slightly renamed versions of earlier sketch shows. In contrast to Mitchell and Webb, however, Armstrong and Miller do not have readily apparent character archetypes (layman/boffin, straight man/indignant man, et cetera).

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A series of vox pops in which a man describes his quirks or mental illnesses, ending with "and that's why I became a teacher."

Parodies of 1970s public information filmsnote Authentically presented in 4:3 aspect ratio though the rest of the series is in widescreen giving useless or dangerous advice.

"Enlightenment, with Dennis Lincoln-Park", in which Miller plays a TV historian who has been entrusted to view some rare and precious object... despite the fact that he is horrifically accident-prone.

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Tropes present in The Armstrong And Miller Show:

Aerith and Bob: A science-fiction sketch set on board a Star Trek-esque ship. The joke is that the characters and place names (though not those of entire species/cultures) all sound like ordinary English names, such as the leader of a race of aliens being called "Ian Nolan".

Benevolent Boss: Played For Laughs. The head of MI-6 is this, often to the point of hindering operations that threaten national security. He once interrupted a terrorist interrogation so the staff could present the agent with a birthday cake.

Beware the Nice Ones: The "kill them" sketches. Plus Miranda and Pru, the owners of Dandylion's cafe in the first series, who are perfectly pleasant (in a bitchy sort of way) when talking to each other, but every sketch ends with them attacking the customers.

Blatant Lies: Anything and everything that Dimitri says by way of explaining the torture he has had done to his enemies. In one sketch a man is being brutalised in the very next room, whose screams are dismissed out of hand.

Butt-Monkey: Declan, from the Striding Man sketches, who is constantly insulted by his employer and his advice scorned.

The poor sod in the Dandylions; he only asks for a little help, which inevitably starts a brawl that ends with him being thrown out a window.

Their Comic Relief sketches include a cameo by Mitchell and Webb ("Kill them!"), and another by Geoffrey Palmer as a senior RAF officer, who manages to set our heroes straight on a couple of points by lapsing into their vernacular.

Big "NO!": Happens in one of the sketches featuring the man who, when out shopping, acts out disastrous events featuring his family and the new purchase.

Brownface: In the sketch about the pirate who misses his old lifestyle, Armstrong plays a woman of unspecified tropical origin.

Brutal Honesty: The basis of the "Frank Dad" sketches, in which a young boy asks typical questions of his father ("Why did you and mum split up?", "Why did Gran die?" etc) and left stunned by the harsh answers ("It was all your fault", "Her alcoholism", respectively, etc).

Captain Oblivious: Roger, who walks in on his wife and his boss before or after they have sex — or in an otherwise-compromising position — and he always manages to be convinced that nothing is going on between the two of them.

The Cast Showoff: Armstrong's great musical talents are frequently put to use in the show.

Also, the Brabbins & Fyffe and public information film sketches all use deliberately desaturated colour.

Discriminate and Switch: The couple who's elderly German and English grandparents meet for the first time, are set up as ex-military and begin bickering over the war, only to forgive each other and agree to let the past rest. It's when the topic switches to who was more responsible for the breakup of Katie Price and Peter Andre's marriage, that the fistfight breaks out.

Declan, the Butt-Monkey of the Striding Man sketches, is the one who escorts him from the building after he's fired.

Gordan Ramsay's staff beat him to death in response to his endless criticism in a one-off sketch.

Dude, Not Funny!: invokedParodied in a set of sketches in series 3. A character will have a slapstick accident and, while they're trying to regain their composure, Miller will walk into view, look into camera and say "This isn't funny, but it actually happened to a friend of mine, so ..."

Fake Nationality: In-Universe with a pair of decorators who pretend to be Polish and act like stereotypical immigrants, claiming to each other after the customer has gone that there's no other way they could find work.

Father to His Men: Parodied with Armstrong's spy chief, who is concerned about his people's mental well-being and work-life balance. Usually when the country's on the verge of a disaster.

How Do You Say: Used by the man in the Parisian café when he speaks to British tourists.

Strange-Syntax Speaker: Having gotten so used to speaking French after emigrating from England, as a result, he now speaks English using both the "wrong" (reversed) syntax and uses literal translations of phrases.

Inventing the Wheel: Played For Laughs. In "The Origin Of ..." sketches, there are plenty of cavemen but they don't invent the wheel. Instead, they invent things like small talk, unusual baby names and hairdressing. It's as much a joke about modern life as it is about the cavemen.

Only Sane Man: In "How Many Hats?", Benjamin Graham, played by Miller, who is the only person involved who appears to realise the inanity of trying to guess how many hats are being worn by a person sitting in plain view just a few feet away from the contestants. The others eventually attempt to physically silence him when he points it out.

Our Vampires Are Different: Played for laughs, obviously. A pair of old-fashioned vampires try to get virgin blood as if they're "on the pull" but are often beaten or outwitted by modern Twilight-inspired vampires.

Parodied this in a sketch which involves random people getting press-ganged by the Royal Navy into joining the "South Harbour Club Patrol" after buying t-shirts reading exactly that. And if that concept isn't 18th century enough, then Somali pirates attack South Harbour... by firing audible cannon broadsides.

In series 3, an actual pirate in the stereotypical style is now living the life of a middle-class house husband. He longs to return to the old life, but his wife is insistant that he doesn't.

Poirot Speak: The main trait of the Miller character who hangs out in a Parisian café. Although a native of Reading, he has lost fluency in English since moving to France six months ago, and consequently speaks with an English accent and French syntax. Later taken Up to Eleven when he meets a fellow Brit who has lived in Germany for two months:

Politeness Judo: Jim takes advantage of the honeymooning couple's politeness and sympathy in order to leech their time (and alcohol).

Potty Emergency: Brabbins & Fyffe's "Train Song" (aka "Have you ever had to take a shit on a train?")

Rant-Inducing Slight: One sketch has a newly married couple heading to their new home when the wife mentions they're passing a place she used to visit with an ex-boyfriend. The husband remains silent and withdrawn for the next fifty years, before finally echoing the comment, moments before dying.

Religious Vampire: In one Pharius and Horschstadt sketch, the girls they are trying to seduce talk them into joining a group of evangelical Christians.

Miranda and Pru starting a fight in Dandylions Cafe, which always ends with the same guy getting thrown out of the window.

Miranda: Pru, It's kicking off!

"Shit... I forgot to put the bins out."

[singsong] "Can you lend me twenty euros?"

"And it is of course, absolutely priceless" [said before Dennis Lincoln-Park destroys yet another invaluable artefact]

Same Language Dub: The "Origin Of" sketches are all dubbed over because they were shot near an airport and there was nothing that could be done to avoid the sound of planes taking off and landing.

Scenery Censor: Played utterly straight in the Nude Practice sketches, which consisted of completely straight versions of country vet dramas in which the only comedy element was that both Armstrong and Miller went about their serious large animal veteranarian practice entirely naked, with genitals concealed by newspapers, teapots etc. Continued to be played straight when Sarah Alexander's character Roberta joined the practice, subverting her obvious role as Ms. Fanservice, up until the moment that her character gained the trust of a local farmer — at which point this trope was spectacularly averted.

Serious Business: In one sketch, a supervillain is behind a shop that sells pots at their full price while claiming that they are half price. Disgusted by this diabolical scheme, his former partner says that he is "the closest thing to pure evil I've ever seen."

Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: The point of the Regency-era ball sketches, in which the upper-class attendees seduce one another using very sophisticated descriptions of the extremely graphic sexual acts they would like to perform.

Shown Their Work: As noted in the DVD extras, the team took great pains to ensure that their period-sketches were accurate. In "How Many Hats" this extended as far as working out exactly what year this show would have taken place in, and finding a period appropriate picture of Princess Margaret for the ending.

Spit Take: In one of the "Enlightenment" sketches. Not from surprise, but because Lincoln-Park has just drunk some foul-tasting home-made communion wine. Unfortunately he does so in front of some candles, and the ignited alcohol incinerates a priceless holy relic.

The Stinger: Every episode ends with one, typically the finale to a sketch already shown in the episode. In the last episode of the first series, for example, a producer turns the "Kill them" line on the two stars after the wrap up for the series.

Visual Pun: In one sketch, a man who's been taking certain pills he ordered off the internet receives a giant statue of a rooster. Also overlaps with Stealth Pun, because it's never actually described as a huge cock.

Brabbins & Fyffe, being a filthier take on Flanders & Swann, is another Played With example. They're incredibly dirty but their songs remain very classy and witty. Before they're hit with the impromptu censor, anyway.

Walk and Talk: A recurring sketch features a man striding purposefully down endless corridors, The West Wing style, while underlings duck in and out delivering him assorted pointless trivia.

Several Brabbins and Fyffe sketches cut to the Test Card note Test card "C" from the black and white era although the sketches are in colour when they start getting too filthy to broadcast. Usually this is used as a Curse Cut Short, although a song beginning "The loveliest thing about teenage girls..." is cut off before it can go any further.

"How Many Hats" ends this way when the panellists start attacking their fourth (Miller) for calling them out on the ridiculously obvious/pointless nature of the game. The annoucer cuts to a period-accurate picture of Princess Margaret.

Wham Line: invokedThe point of a series of sketches in which couples describe their relationship to the camera. They end with one of the saying something which would ruin relationships normally, such as one partner being described as a managing director, and the other as a Nazi sympathiser.

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